LAB strikes at the National!

The CBA National Homebrewers Competition took place in Bristol on Saturday 15th September 2012. Twenty of our members entered a few beers and some entered several more than that. Bryan even entered the same beer into 4 different categories!

A number of members also went down to judge – Paul Spearman, Paul Henderson, Simon Ashdown, Ben Fields, Mike Carter and Peter Hughes. By all accounts it was quite tough going, as it would be with 461 to get through. In fact due to the monumental volume of beers the judging finished about 4 hours later than planned so the ‘social’ event never took place. Those of us waiting around availed ourselves of whatever beer was rejected from the judging room which sadly was not the good stuff as that was being kept for ‘best of show’.

As it turned out LAB had a very successful competition, both individually and as a group. Our members picked up 11 individual medals, plus one for 3rd overall. We also won Club of the Year for points accumulated in competition over the course of the year. Who would bet against us doing it again next year!

Roll of Honour

Club of the Year

London Amateur Brewers

Overall Winners

3rd – Dave Halse – Mystrawraspb – Fruit Beer (20A)

Gold Medals

Dave Halse – Mystrawraspb – Fruit Beer (20A)

Matt Barker – Disconnecty Belgian IPA – Belgian Specialty Ale(16E)

Ken Bazley – Coconut Porter – Spice Herb and Vegetable (19)

Silver Medals

Dave Halse – Mybarleywine – English Barleywine (19B)

Matt Barker – Prodigal American Pale Ale (10A)

Mark Charlwood – Summer Pale – New Zealand Pale Ale (30A)

Bronze Medals

Bryan Spooner – Sadako Imperial Stout (13F)

Richard Pearce – Strong Bitter (8C)

Tom Greasley – The Red Scare – American Amber Ale (10B)

Dave Halse – Mysmokedporter – Smoked Other beers (22B)

Ken Bazley – Altbier – North German Alt (7A)

Special thanks to Ali Kocho-Williams for organising and running the event.

Dave Halse and Ken Bazley celebrate their medals with a few pints of Kernel/LAB Pale Ale @ The Draft House, Tower Bridge.